Don't forget that walls have ears! thumbnail 1
Don't forget that walls have ears! thumbnail 2
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Request to view at the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C , Case MB2G, Shelf DR105

Don't forget that walls have ears!

Poster
1940 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Fougasse was art editor of the magazine Punch when World War Two broke out in 1939, and he offered his services free to the British Government. He produced propaganda material for almost every ministry, and his gossiping cartoon characters injected welcome humour into propaganda posters in February 1940. Their popularity set a new tone for official mass communication. Despite an extended and illustrious career as a cartoonist, illustrator and commercial poster designer, it is probably for his 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' posters, issued by the Ministry of Information for display in public transport, that he is best known. In this one the Adolf Hitler (the hated German Nazi leader) wallpaper motif provides a visually amusing graphic device for concealing the enemy, as well as enriching the joke.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • Don't forget that walls have ears! (assigned by artist)
  • Careless Talk Costs Lives (series title)
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph on paper
Brief description
'Don't forget that walls have ears!'; Design by 'Fougasse' (Cyril Kenneth Bird); One of the series of 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' posters issued by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War; Great Britain; 1940.
Physical description
'Don’t forget that walls have ears'; Portrait format poster printed in colours on a white ground, the image quite small in overall picture plane. Captioned in script below the illustration and then in larger letters at bottom of sheet 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'. The whole with a red border. Showing two women seated at a table having tea. The wallpaper behind them appears like a semi-abstract linear pattern of trees and curves but is in fact a repeat pattern of a caricature head of Hitler; Colour photo-lithograph on paper.
Dimensions
  • Sheet height: 30.5cm
  • Sheet width: 20.3cm
Dimensions taken from: Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
Production typeMass produced
Marks and inscriptions
Fougasse (top left corner; lithography)
Credit line
Given by the Ministry of Information
Production
one of a set of eight images on the theme 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'.

Reason For Production: Commission
Subjects depicted
Summary
Fougasse was art editor of the magazine Punch when World War Two broke out in 1939, and he offered his services free to the British Government. He produced propaganda material for almost every ministry, and his gossiping cartoon characters injected welcome humour into propaganda posters in February 1940. Their popularity set a new tone for official mass communication. Despite an extended and illustrious career as a cartoonist, illustrator and commercial poster designer, it is probably for his 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' posters, issued by the Ministry of Information for display in public transport, that he is best known. In this one the Adolf Hitler (the hated German Nazi leader) wallpaper motif provides a visually amusing graphic device for concealing the enemy, as well as enriching the joke.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1
Other number
4/C12 - V&A microfiche
Collection
Accession number
E.2167-1946

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Record createdMarch 13, 2003
Record URL
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